Server's comments

I've just been reading the technical musings without remarking because it would take so long to remark. Shane, virtually every detail you mention in your paradigms of rod structural dynamics is bipolar (opposite of real behavior). Don't be in despair because I suspect you have no real expertise in Structural Dynamics. I'll just mention one or two things to get you and anyone else in the right direction. Acceleration is easy when the speed is low and takes great effort and energy as the center of mass of object is put into motion. The idea of increasing acceleration at will is simply unrealistic and would even be hard for a machine to produce let along a human. It is better to think in terms of the torques which can be applied to the rod -- a number of things effect the torque which can be applied to a rod and it isn't long into the casting process when the torque can no longer be increased and the rod begins unloading. The acceleration of the tip at RSP is zero --i.e., tip speed at this instant is not changing while velocity direction is changing so a minor acceleration is connected with direction change. The acceleration of the tip is greatest at maximum rod deflection which occurs long, long before rod straightening. As the rod straightens the acceleration must decrease -- this occurs monotonically. That one is very easy to understand and anyone with competency in basic college physics can understand this statement. It is no different from the behavior of a simple oscillator -- this behavior always demonstrates accelerations proportional to spring deflection which are comparable to the rod deflection. One last note is that from high speed infrared photography images (and understanding rod structural dynamics) about (my estimate) 25% of rod unloading occurs after the flyline is flying and the loop begins forming. RSP is symbolic of the end of rod unloading but the rod has stopped accelerating the bulk of the line earlier (except for a little line near the tip which it is in fact trying to throw into the ground and this accounts for the details of loop formation). Referencing the high frame rate data posted in the past can give you a leg-up on some of the physics associated with fly casting.